Fibrous composition and process of manufacture.



JAMES C. WOODLEY, OF EVANS'ION, ILLINOIS. 1

FIIBBOUS COMPOSITION AND PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented 0015.12, 1915.

n Drawing. Substitute for application Serial No. 196,143, filed October 20, 1913. This application filed February 11, 1915. Serial No. 7,551.

[0 all whom/it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES C. WoooLnY, a citizen of the United States, residing in Evanston, Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Iin rovements in Fibrous Compositions and recesses of Manufacture, of which the following is a specification.

.The invention has for its-object the obtaining of a composition of matter having superior insulating qualities, of high resistance to the elements, capable of being readily Worked, and thus adapted with slight modifications in proportions and in treatment for a wide range of usefulness as a roofing material, for electric insulation and in the manufacture of various articles in different arts.

While the invention, as stated, is not limited in its application to the. particular employment, it is of especial value and will, for purposes of illustration, be described in its adaptation to roofing purposes.

In the manufacture of composition roofing it is old to employ bituminous materials, such as asphalt and coal tar compositions using a sheet of the -so-called dry felt or dry roofing paper of commerce, or other fibrous base previously prepared in sheet form, which is saturated as much as practicable by passing through a bath of bituminous waterproofing material, then through revolving squeeze rolls. to remove the surplus bituminous material, and then one or both sides of the sheet may if desired be coated with a superficial layer of suitable bituminous material, such surface receiving in some cases a finishing coating of soapstone. talc, sand, gravel, etc.v

It will be noted that the fibrous material or base in such product has been previoulsy made into sheet form, usually being put up in the form of rolls. This dry felt or dry roofing paper (the term dry means unsaturated) is made of various weights,thicknesses and widths and has considerable strength as is necessary to permit handling it in the various steps of the saturating treatment, etc. On the other hand, it will he inadeclear that the fibrous material or I fibers in my product are distributed homogeneously in the binder in the disintegrating or mixing operation and'are coated (and in some cases partly saturated) with the binder before or simultaneously with theirbcinfg interlaced and twisted together and the brous portion in my product when considered separately from the binder has coniparatively little strength. If the binder be extracted from the sheet of my product with a solvent the remaining fibrous matter is a comparatively weak pad of fibers overlying and interlaced with each other as distinguished from dry felt or dry roofing paper,

which has considerable strength of its own. Nevertheless the fibrous ortion of my compos t on serves to makethecomplete composition very much tougher than'the binder alone. i 5

By my invention I seek to obtain a prod not which may be designated as a fibrous bituminous sheet, that is to say one in which the fiber and asphalt or other bituminous matter are so merged that the original fibrous material employed has substantially lost its individuality but imparts to the product a fibrous quality. 7

I will first describe in detail the steps of a process which is applicable to the manufacture of such a composition suitable for making roofing sheets.

To a suitable residuum oil I add a bituminous material such as gilsonite asphalt, grahamite, elaterite or other hard asphalt. The material is heated to a temperature of approximately 400 F. in order to reduce the bituminous ingredient to a liquid condition and effect its thorough mixture with the oil. The proportions may vary within a conisderable range but should be such. that when cooled the material is semi-solid and gummy. For example, a residuum oil having a melting point of 100 to 120 F. and grahamite may be mixed in the ratio of eighty-ei ht oil to twelve grahaniite by Weight. .r I may take a softer asphalt and temper the same in known manner to produce a product of the same consistency at ordinary temperatures. Generally speaking, the binder or gummy material herein referred to may be anatural or artificial asphalt or natural or artificial pitch of the desired consistency or a combination of roofing or flux oil or other soft asphalts with harder natural asphalts, such as gilsonite, or with harder distilled asphalts or pitches, or may be any equivalent material or combination of materials. To the hot liquid binding material is added a quantity of fibrous material such. for example, as

tion. The mixture of fibrous material and the gummy binder is then worked in a kneading and mixing machine. The effect is first to coat the paper with the binder, so that the subsequent kneading operation thoroughly disintegrates the paper into substantially elementary fibers and each of these fibers is coated with the binder and the resulting fibrous material is thoroughly mixed until a substantially homogeneous product is obtained. The operation not only coats each of the elementary fibers with the binder but causes a considerable absorp-' tion of the binding material into the fibers approximating saturation thereof. By slowly heating the mass afterward the greater part of the water in the fibers may be driven out.

Instead of disintegrating and mixing in one operation the following method may be practised: The paper waste may be added to the binder while the latter is liquid and thoroughly mixed therewith in order to effect a coating ofthe paper with the binder as far as is practicable, after which the pa: per is removed from the liquid and allowed to drain and cool.

For some purposes the amount of asphalt which adheres to the paper is such as to be in excess of that required and under such circumstances the liquid composition may be otherwise applied as by spraying upon the paper in order to secure a thinner coating,

the hardness of the finished product varying with the relative proportions of paper and asphalt, and the consistency of the asphalt.

The coated paper having been allowed to cool to a semi-solid consistency is in a suitable machine forced under great pressure through one or more perforated plates (or repeatedly through thesame plate) from which it emerges as a mass of fibrous asphalt in which it is practically impossible to distinguish particles of the fibrous material, the paper having been so intimately incorporated with the asphalt by the forcingprocess as to have practically lost its identity and become broken down into its individual component fibers. This peculiar result is believed to be explainable as follows: If, as is well known, a sheet of paper for instance be cemented between two layers of elastic material and such material be then stretched so as to be extended in. all its parts, the interposed paper not being elastic will be disintegrated not by breaking at a few Pain bu at a n ni e mbe of Pai as to maintain its relation to the elastic material to which it is cemented. lVhere, as in the present case, the paper strips are covered on both sides with the gummy bituminous composition and the latter is forced through the perforations in air-attenuated condition the paper is entirely disintegrated and is merged with the asphaltum in av homogeneous fibrous mass rather thanas being present in the form of fibrous particles of f appreciable size within the asphalt but distinct therefrom.

Waste paper is advantageous because of its cheapness, but instead of using paper I may employvarious other aggregated fibrous material, such as felt, cloth, straw or the like. Also the fibrous material may be in a partially or completely disintegrated or sep-* arated condition before applying it to the asphalt. Such a disintegrated material, for example, is paper pulp, beaten rag stock, cooked straw, cotton or wool fiber or the like disintegrated in heating of Jordan engines or pulping machinery or carding or similar machines. Or an animal fiber such as hair or a mineral fiber such as asbestos may be employed. Or, a mixture of two or more kinds of fiber may be employed. Obviously sary to get the fibers distributed substantially uniformly throughout the composition and. also to permit them to be coated uniformly with the binder, and in some cases saturated or partly saturated by the binder or a portion of the same.

Instead of forcing the mixture through foraminous plates, various other means may be used for kneading or mixing the mass and disintegrating the fibers. The kneading andmixing operation serves to separate the elementary fibers from contact with each other and to thoroughly coat them and distribute them so as to produce the homogene ous product desired; whereas without the mixing and kneadnig or pulling operation which is a characteristic of my process such fibers would simply be cemented together in balls or comparatively large aggregations throughout the mass, into which the binding material would fail to enter perfectly and which would not produce a homogeneous product. Also if the fibrous material were only roughly separated in the beginning it would be finely disintegrated as well as coated and homogeneously distributed by my process. The bituminous binder is closely her n t nd a g ea e xten i li y,

than the fibrousmaterial, and the operations above described cause a repeated extendin of the binder,so that the fibers are coate with the binder and distributed and interlaced throughout it.

The process is facilitated by moistening or wetting the fibrous material beforehand, or by adding water to the mixture;in which case the Water will not combine to any material extent with the gummy material, but will soften the fibrous material. I prefer to keep the amount of water present as low as possible. A practicable proportion of moisture is 50% of the fibrous material. I

The wetting of the fibrous material produces a better product by weakening the cohesion of the elementary fibers to each other and by softening the sizing on the surface in the case of certain kinds of paper. Where the material has not been moistened the fibers do not separate so easily, but are individually broken to a greater extent than where the material is moistened, and the product is not so strong.

In some cases it may be practicable to introduce the fibrous material to the asphalt in a solid condition, and by gently heating the.

mass without reducing to a liquid condition and passing the paper and gummy asphalt mixture through the kneading and mixing machine to simultaneously effect the coating and disintegration of the paper. In

' other cases time may elapse. between the vaand mixing machine may be subjected to' rious steps; as for example, paper or felt which has been previously coated, or in some cases partly saturated with a binder, may at a later period he sub]ected to the disintegrating operation to produce the fibrous composition. Such previously coated.

or saturated materials maybe, for example, so-called rubber roofing scrap or tarred felt scrap. These, with addition of water and, where required, a further quantity of bituminous binder may be kneaded and mixed as above described.

In either case the composition as it comes from the foramious plates or disintegrating pressure, as for example. by passing between .one or more sets of rolls to form suitable sheets of the desired thickness. This rolling may be accomplished at varying temperatures, depending upon the nature of the composition. For this rolling process it may be desirable or necessary to use soapstone, mica. sand. etc., to prevent the composition from sticking to the rolls or any other suitable means of effecting the same result may be employed. The sheet may then be led between otherpressing rolls by which it is compacted to a high degree of density and may be then passed between smoothing rolls in order to impart a surface finish, or where desired, the sheet after passing through the pressing rolls and the smoothing rolls may be led through a bath of hot asphalt or have a surface coat of asphalt applied thereto in any suitable manner and rolled down to give a smooth finish after which it may be subjected to soapstoning to impart a final surface finish. If roofing sheets are to be made the quantities of fibrous material and binder entering into the mass will have been so proportioned as to obtain a tough product of con- 'such quantities that their fibrous content will run up to about equal weight with that of the asphaltum.

The forming rolls revolve in a body of cold water in order to chill the product and tend to prevent sticking.

My product may be made to possess greater strength than the so-called rubber roofings and other prepared roofing sheets and also has superior insulating and protectii 3 qualities required in a roofing and building material. Its principal distinction from such other roofing lies in the fact that its composition is substantially homogeneous or uniform throughout its extent as distinguished from an imperfectly saturated fabric. superficially coated with bituminous material, the fibrous component of my prodnot being so intimately united with and so uniformly distributed throughout the bituminous component that the two are inseperable and practically indistinguishable. The producthas thus no weak spots and possesses in the highest degree throughout its extent the insulating and protective qualities required in a roofing material. Thus on wearing, my roofing constantly presents to the weather an unbroken surface in which each fiber is surrounded and to acertain extent saturated With the bituminous or other binder and is of substantially uniform composition throughout the entire thickness;

whereas in the case of the older roofings,

when the thin superficial layer of bituminous coating has been punctured or worn off they present to the destructive action of the elements an imperfectly saturated and uncoated fabric. which readily deteriorates.

The process as above outlined makes possible the employment as a roofing sheet, in

connection with the fibrous constituent, of the more desirable hard pitchy asphalt as distinguished from an asphalt which liquefies at a comparatively low temperature, the latter --having been heretofore necessarily.

employed in order to effect a saturation of the fibrous layer.

By my invention the fibrous constituent and asphalt are thoroughly amalgamated when in a semi-solid condition, the employment of an asphalt which is liquid at comparatively low temperatures not being nec- LSSRIV.

My invention is distinguished and characterized by the fact, that the fibrous material is present not only in a finely divided condition, but further by the fact that the fibrous material is of a character such that the particles will interlace or knit in much the same manner as floc knits or interlaces in forming a felted sheet.

The product of this invention is distinguished by being nonrliquefiable by heat. \Vhen subjected to heat a mass of the composition will become more plastic but will largely retain its shape although a small part of, the bituminous material may be separated out of the mass and melted.

The elementary fibers will generally be separately and thoroughly coated with the binder, even at points where the fibers overlie one another, because they are separately coated before or simultaneously with the interlacing process. By elementary fibers I refer to the-unitary or discrete fibers or to fine groups of such fiberswhich cohere and act as a unit in the composition.

I have described my product with particular reference to makin roofing sheets in rolls but it may be pro need in the form of shingles, flat sheets, tiles, etc. Also on account of the superior strength, insulating and wearing properties of my composition, I may employ it advantageously in other arts, as for example, in making pavingblocks, floor tiles, floor coverings, storage battery containers, pipes or conduits, elec trio insulating, etc. incorporate with my material coloring matter or mineral or other filler. In fact vari ous modifications and departures from the specific materials and steps described may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the invention as described in the following claims.

\Vhat I claim, is

1. The process of producing a substantially homogeneous fibrous gummy mass which consists in superficially coating a fibrous mass with a gummy material, and disintegrating the fibrous mass in the resulting gummy mixture, without destroying the fibrous character of said mass-substantially as described.

2. The process of producing a substantially homogeneous fibrous gummy mass which consists in superficially coating a fibrous mass with a gummymaterial and subjecting the resulting gummy mixture to a ral ies enar iea..safi eat ta iisiates ate I may also, if desired,

geneous fibrous gummy product, substan tially as described.

4. The process of producing a substantially homogeneous fibrous gummy mass which consists in applyin superficially to a fibrous mass a coating of bituminous material in a gummy condition, and disintegrating the fibrous mass in the resulting gummy mixture, without destroying the fibrous character of said mass so as to produce a homogeneous fibrous gummy product, substantially as described.

5. The process of producing a substantially homogeneous fibrous gummy. mass which consists in superficially coating fibrous material with a hot bituminous material, allowing the coated fiber to stiffen to a gummy condition, and disintegrating the fibrous material in the gummy mixture without destroying the fibrous character of said material so as to produce a homogeneous fibrous gummy product, substantially as described.

6. The process of producing a substantially homogeneous fibrous gummy mass which consists in superficially coating paper with a hot asphalt, allowing the coated ma-v terial to cool and harden to a gummy condition, and subjecting the-coated paper to a pulling operation sufficient to disintegrate the coated fiber without destroying its fibrous condition and to cause it to be distributed and interlaced throughout the 1 of molten bituminous material, allowing the coated paper to drain and cool, and disintegrating the coated paper without destroying its'fibrous condition, soas to produce a homogeneous fibrous gummy, product, substantially as described.

8. The process of producing a substantially homogeneous fibrous gummy mass which consists in dipping paper in a bath of molten asphalt, allowing the coated paper to'drain and cool, and subjecting the coated paper to a pulling operation sufficient to disintegrate the fiber without destroying its fibrous condition and to cause it to be disgtrihated.. an .,i l -lfl .d thro ghput thei l asphalt, so as to produce a homogeneous fibrous gummy product, substantially as described.

9. The process of producing a substantially homogeneous fibrous gummy mass which consists in superficially coating a fibrous material in a moistened condition with a bituminous material and disintegrating the fibrous material in the resulting gummy mixture without destroying the .tibrous character of said material so as to produce a homogeneous product composed of fibrous and bituminous ingredients.

10. The process of producing a substantially homogeneous fibrous gummy mass a semi-solid gummy consistency, and metially homogeneous chanicallydisintegrating the fibrous material while in intimate adhering contact with the binder, to produce a substantially homogeneous composition of substantially discrete interlaced fibers cemented together by the binder.

12. The process of roducing a substanbrous gummy mass which consists in mixing fibrous material with a bituminous binder consisting of asphalt in such proportion that the fibrous material comprises not more than fifty per cent. by weight of the total and the mixture is of a semi-solid gummy consistency, and then disintegrating the fibrous material while in intimate adhering contact with the binder to produce asubstantially homogeneous fibrous composition of substantially. discrete interlaced fibers cemented together by the binder.-

13. The process of producing a substantially homogeneous fibrous gummy mass which consists in mixing fibrous material with a closely adherent bituminous binder having greater extensibility than said fibrous material, and then extending said binder sufliciently to disintegrate the fibrous material.

14:. The process of fiproducing a substantially homogeneous" brous gummy mass which consists in mixing paper'with asphalt so that the asphalt adheres closely to the paper, and then extending said asphalt sufficiently to disintegrate the paper.

15. The process of producing a substantially homogeneous fibrous gummy mass which consists in mixing fibrous material with a closely adherent bituminous binder having greater extensibility than said fibrous material and repeatedly extending said binder to cause the fibers to be coated with the binder and to be distributedand interlaced throughout the binder.

.16. The process of producing a substantially hbmogeneous fibrous gummy mass which consists in applying a gummy binder superficially to a fibrous material in aggregated form and then disintegrating the coated mass Without destroying its fibrous char-.

acter.

17. The herein described composition of matter which comprises a bituminous bind-- ing material with elementary fibers distributed substantially uniformly and homogeneously throughout the'mass, the elementary fibers being separately and thoroughly coat ed with the binder and said fibers being interlaced or felted together, the product being a fibrous bituminous mass materially tougher than the binding material alone and being non-liquefiable by hea 18. The herein described composition of matter comprising disintegrated fibrous material and a gummy binder, the fibrous material comprising not more than fifty per cent. by weight of the total and being dis.

tributed uniformly in elementary fibers throughout the bituminous binder, the composition being non-liquefiable by heat.

19. The herein described composition of matter, comprising disintegrated paper and asphalt, the paper comprising not more than fifty per cent. by Weight of the total and being distributed uniformly in substantially elementary fibers throughout the asphalt, flhe composition being non-liquefiable by eat.

20. The herein described composition of matter comprising disintegrated fibrous material and a bituminous hinder, the fibrous material comprising from five to thirty per cent. by weight of the combined fibrous material and bituminous binder and being distributed uniformly in elementary fibers throughout the bituminous binder, the composition being non-liquefiable by heat.

21. The herein described composition of matter comprising disintegrated fibrous paper and asphalt, the paper comprising from five to thirty per cent. by Weight of the combined paper and asphalt and being distributed uniformly in elementary fibers throughout the asphalt, the composition being non-liquefiable by heat.

22. The herein described fibrous composition, non-liquefiable by heat, composed of elementary fibers and a bituminous binder. the elementary fibers being separately coated with the binder and being distributed uniformly throughout the composition and the separately coated fibers being interlaced together so as to give strength to the composition although the fibrous portion of the composition, considered separately from the binder, has comparatively little strength.

23. The herein described composition of matter, which comprises a binder with clementary fibers distributed substantially uniformly and homogeneousl throughout and a filler, the elementary fi ers being coated with the binder and said fibers being interlaced or felted together; the product being a fibrous bituminous composition, materially tougher than the combined filler and binding material and being non-liquefiable by eat.

24. The herein described compositionof matter, which comprises a binder with elenieenae mentary fibers distributed substantially uniformly and homogeneously throughout and a coloring matter, the elementary fibers being coated with the binder and said fibers being interlaced or felted together; the product being a fibrous bituminous composition materially tougher than the combined binder and coloring matter and being nonliquefiable by heat.

In Witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses;

JAMES C. WOODLEY.

Witnesses:

D. ANTHONY USNETT, Lem: SrUBnNvoLL. 

